At present I feel reminded of the England of the 1990s, when the Royal Family could not do anything right. Whatever they did, it was wrong and at times it seemed to be more popular to oust the Royal Family than to quit the EU. The Royals survived and leaving the EU is far more popular again.
Although it is only weeks since the scandal broke over our President’s bearings, it slowly starts to feel like years. Under every pebble lurks a new ‘scandal’ and I can’t help but think, that there are a lot of people out there who follow their own agendas even if it is only higher sales figures or ratings. Saying that the ongoing controversy partly is his fault, too; bad management – admitting news only after it breaks does not appear very trustworthy.
Old sins are catching up with him now – he attacked other politicians in similar circumstances with statements like, “It is a tragedy that Germany does not have an impartial President during this difficult time, who could raise his voice with authority.” Silly comments he made, like that he does not want to be the President of a country where loans from private persons and holidays at friends’ places are not allowed. As if he would not know that in his case private or cheap loans and free luxury holidays smell of corruption and abuse of (his previous) position!
Politicians like him are the reason why the people are fed up with politics and why this column exists – apart from a booming private economy we lack flagship politicians and model policies. Currently 31% of citizens think he is credible and just more than half feel he should step down. I feel it would damage Germany more having a second President resign in less than two years, but one should be more careful in future when choosing a candidate.
On a more cheerful note; we may not have an AAA president, but at least we kept our AAA rating. How quickly you can lose those with poor standards and moody economists, demonstrates the example of Austria. Perhaps only one person’s ambition is the reason, why Germany has been spared the shame of downgrading!
The soldier king Frederick the Great managed to establish 250 years ago a second empire on German soil, thus weakening the century long dominating Austrian dynasty under Maria Theresa to such a degree that it never managed to stand up to the Prussians again. Prussia eventually managed to dominate the whole of Germany with a central government in Berlin since 1871. This did not only shape history, but also character. Just imagine a pastry eating German in a coffee house with a charming accent, yodeling in lederhosen or a Mozart listening psychoanalyst instead of an efficient “Ugly German” with a harsh, barking voice!
But apart from those differences history would not have been very different, because the Austrians did not get on with France either and Hitler’s Anschluss also would have taken place, only the other way round. The Austrians probably are nowadays quite happy with the course of history and with their AA+ and Angela Merkel with her AAA. Whether she is happy with her president she won´t say.